Avove

As a not-for-profit social enterprise with purely charitable aims, we provide support and help to disadvantaged groups in the Derby area including refugees, the unemployed and homeless living in hardship and facing destitution. We, therefore, provide regular daily food bank services as part of our overall Food-Share project. We currently support over 930 people in hardship and the numbers increasing every week due to energy and living costs and other social and economic issues within the UK society. The current users of our services include: => 226 Asylum Seekers from different backgrounds, => 188 Refugees from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and Kurdish backgrounds, => 194 Refugees from Ukraine, => 266 Unemployed or on Universal Credits program from different backgrounds, => 34 Homeless from all different backgrounds, => 28 Other Meanwhile, people who access our Food-Share services can also benefit from the following charitable services and community activities: Clothing bank services, Capacity-building services including English classes and IT digital workshops, Sewing and Patch-working classes, Healthy cooking workshops, Community Cohesion events, outreaching, befriending and socializing opportunities, Employment support including training, job search and admin support for the unemployed, Capacity-building support including Maths/ English/ESOL courses, and volunteering opportunities for people from all backgrounds.

We run a community pantry open to anyone in need of food, it is run on surplus food collections our aim is to feed as many families as we can We run our pantry from a local church/community centre. We run every Monday morning. https://www.facebook.com/share/rYJ6YGmtEDnE1hDD/?mibextid=K35XfP https://www.facebook.com/share/rYJ6YGmtEDnE1hDD/?mibextid=K35XfP We advertise on our facebook page.. see link above and on other local facebook pages as well as the church magazine and word of mouth . We have 580 members and growing all the time . Our pantry users queue from 3 hours before, showing the great need in the community. There is absolutely no charge to come in and fill your basket/bags provided . If anyone wants to leave a small donation then we are very appreciative . We have a church pantry bank account which we bank the donations every week. We manage to buy all our weekly pantry needs from this, such as bags, containers, hygiene gloves, thermometers, temperature charts, pat testing, cleaning stuff and also hire a large commercial bin and emptying service. We don’t have a large amount left as send to our local community farm and for composting at our local allotments. A no profit lunch club is also run by the church and community centre in the next room, the users are brought in by community transport buses, local buses, cars and by foot . This is very important for the elderly and disabled as some dont see anyone week to week. They also enjoy using our pantry We recently were invited to have a table at a question and answer event at another nearby centre. We were amongst other local organisations such as. Local environment groups, renewable energy advice, transport, recycling etc. we found this valuable as got a lot of interesting questions asked which helped us to understand exactly what the locals want. . We also collect donations from fareshare . We have had visits from local MPs, environmental health and have got a 5 star hygiene rating on our door and hold hygiene certificates ourselves . We would like to open on another day with support . Our volunteers are amazing, we have a great team .

Our charity was established in 2012 by a group of multi-cultural local people who wanted to do something about the significant increase in local crime, lack of opportunities, inability to access services, extreme poverty & hunger, isolation, fear and rise in racial hostility within their community, aiming to make a positive contribution to the cohesion & economy of the community, to help neighbourhoods feel safer & rekindle old-fashioned community spirit thereby: reducing the effects of deprivation and social exclusion reducing anti-social behaviour redistributing food & toiletries to those most in need ensuring greater numbers of people access local public & 3rd sector services All contributing to our vision: the improvement of dignity, physical & mental tool, quality of life, aspirations and understanding amongst all in our community. Happy to support the community, Glasgow City Council provided a long-term lease on an unused unit in the heart of Crookston which, together, we turned into the bright, welcoming ‘Crookston Community Centre’. In 10 years, our services within the Community Centre developed as needs were identified and now include: Foodshare Drop-in School Holidays Lunch Club Independence from Foodbanks Let’s Get Connected (IT classes) Adult & Children language classes Youth Games & Movie Club Thursdays Cook n Chat General Drop-in Service Volunteering, Training & Work Placements Multi-Culture Fun Days Local MP Chris Stevens surgery from our premises Our Foodshare platforms have reached beyond our immediate community to include ‘On Wheels’, ‘Emergency’ & ‘Pop-Ups’ Glasgow-wide & in Dunterlie, East Renfrewshire. CCG is a community anchor – known as the “Go To” place within the community, we are there to offer a helping hand, somewhere to go without judgement. To facilitate the growth & development of some of these services and to introduce another, we’ve leased a 2ndpremises (4 doors up) to convert into a working/training kitchen & café: ‘Crookston Community Kitchen’(full planning permission secured) with the intention of this becoming sustainable after 12 months by offering Catering Services within South West Glasgow.